Selectively pinning sections of displayed content

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and/or computer program product pins an area on a user interface. One or more processors receive a pinning signal from a user. The pinning signal defines a pinned area on a user interface. The pinned area is an unrestricted freeform area that is defined by the user. One or more processors then receive a scrolling input, which causes an unpinned area on the user interface to move on the user interface, while the pinned area is displayed z-indexed above the unpinned area that has moved, and while the pinned area remains in a fixed position on the user interface.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to the field of computers, andspecifically to displays on computers. Still more specifically, thepresent disclosure relates to user interfaces on displays.

SUMMARY

In one or more embodiments of the present invention, a method, system,and/or computer program product pins an area on a user interface. One ormore processors receive a pinning signal from a user. The pinning signaldefines a pinned area on a user interface. The pinned area is anunrestricted freeform area that is defined by the user. One or moreprocessors then receive a scrolling input, which causes an unpinned areaon the user interface to move on the user interface, while the pinnedarea is displayed z-indexed above the unpinned area that has moved, andwhile the pinned area remains in a fixed position on the user interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system and network which may be used toimplement the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an initial state of a user interface, in which apinned area is defined by a user;

FIG. 3 depicts the user interface in FIG. 2 after an unpinned area hasbeen scrolled, while the pinned area remains stationary;

FIG. 4 illustrates the user interface in FIG. 2 after the pinned areahas been scrolled, while the unpinned area remains stationary;

FIG. 5 depicts a user interface having multiple visually coded pinnedareas;

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface that displays a spreadsheet that issubject to area pinning;

FIG. 7 depicts a user interface that displays an integrated developmentenvironment (IDE) that is subject to area pinning; and

FIG. 8 is a high level flow chart of one or more exemplary steps takenby one or more processors to pin and manage pinned areas on a userinterface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

With reference now to the figures, and in particular to FIG. 1, there isdepicted a block diagram of an exemplary system and network that may beutilized by and/or in the implementation of the present invention. Notethat some or all of the exemplary architecture, including both depictedhardware and software, shown for and within computer 102 may be utilizedby software deploying server 150.

Exemplary computer 102 includes a processor 104 that is coupled to asystem bus 106. Processor 104 may utilize one or more processors, eachof which has one or more processor cores. A video adapter 108, whichdrives/supports a display 110, is also coupled to system bus 106. Systembus 106 is coupled via a bus bridge 112 to an input/output (I/O) bus114. An I/O interface 116 is coupled to I/O bus 114. I/O interface 116affords communication with various I/O devices, including a keyboard118, a mouse 120, a media tray 122 (which may include storage devicessuch as CD-ROM drives, multi-media interfaces, etc.), and external USBport(s) 126. While the format of the ports connected to I/O interface116 may be any known to those skilled in the art of computerarchitecture, in one embodiment some or all of these ports are universalserial bus (USB) ports.

As depicted, computer 102 is able to communicate with a softwaredeploying server 150 using a network interface 130. Network interface130 is a hardware network interface, such as a network interface card(NIC), etc. Network 128 may be an external network such as the Internet,or an internal network such as an Ethernet or a virtual private network(VPN).

A hard drive interface 132 is also coupled to system bus 106. Hard driveinterface 132 interfaces with a hard drive 134. In one embodiment, harddrive 134 populates a system memory 136, which is also coupled to systembus 106. System memory is defined as a lowest level of volatile memoryin computer 102. This volatile memory includes additional higher levelsof volatile memory (not shown), including, but not limited to, cachememory, registers and buffers. Data that populates system memory 136includes computer 102's operating system (OS) 138 and applicationprograms 144.

OS 138 includes a shell 140, for providing transparent user access toresources such as application programs 144. Generally, shell 140 is aprogram that provides an interpreter and an interface between the userand the operating system. More specifically, shell 140 executes commandsthat are entered into a command line user interface or from a file.Thus, shell 140, also called a command processor, is generally thehighest level of the operating system software hierarchy and serves as acommand interpreter. The shell provides a system prompt, interpretscommands entered by keyboard, mouse, or other user input media, andsends the interpreted command(s) to the appropriate lower levels of theoperating system (e.g., a kernel 142) for processing. Note that whileshell 140 is a text-based, line-oriented user interface, the presentinvention will equally well support other user interface modes, such asgraphical, voice, gestural, etc.

As depicted, OS 138 also includes kernel 142, which includes lowerlevels of functionality for OS 138, including providing essentialservices required by other parts of OS 138 and application programs 144,including memory management, process and task management, diskmanagement, and mouse and keyboard management.

Application programs 144 include a renderer, shown in exemplary manneras a browser 146. Browser 146 includes program modules and instructionsenabling a world wide web (WWW) client (i.e., computer 102) to send andreceive network messages to the Internet using hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP) messaging, thus enabling communication with softwaredeploying server 150.

Application programs 144 in computer 102's system memory (as well assoftware deploying server 150's system memory) also include a userinterface display control logic (UIDCL) 148. UIDCL 148 includes code forimplementing the processes described below, including those described inFIGS. 2-8. In one embodiment, computer 102 is able to download UIDCL 148from software deploying server 150, including in an on-demand basis,wherein the code in UIDCL 148 is not downloaded until needed forexecution. Note further that, in one embodiment of the presentinvention, software deploying server 150 performs all of the functionsassociated with the present invention (including execution of UIDCL148), thus freeing computer 102 from having to use its own internalcomputing resources to execute UIDCL 148.

Note that the hardware elements depicted in computer 102 are notintended to be exhaustive, but rather are representative to highlightessential components required by the present invention. For instance,computer 102 may include alternate memory storage devices such asmagnetic cassettes, digital versatile disks (DVDs), Bernoullicartridges, and the like. These and other variations are intended to bewithin the spirit and scope of the present invention.

With reference now to FIG. 2, an initial state of a user interface 200in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention ispresented. As depicted, user interface 200, which may display a webpage,an application, or any other type of graphical/text material, has aninitial unpinned area 202. Unpinned area 202 initially includes a pinnedarea 204. However, when a user defines and selects pinned area 204 bypositioning and clicking a cursor 206 (or providing some similar type ofinput), then pinned area 204 takes on unique properties. Morespecifically, pinned area 204 and unpinned area 202 respond differentlyto scrolling operations (e.g., when a user turns/scrolls a wheel on amouse, or drags a scrollbar 208 along a scroll area 210). Similarly, thepinned area 204 and unpinned area 202 respond differently to scrollingoperations from a keyboard, using up/down keys on the keyboard.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a system (e.g., processor104 executing UIDCL 148 in FIG. 1) identifies the pinned area 204 usingcoordinate information provided by the cursor position while the userdefines the pinned area 204. Content within the identified pinned area204 is then captured by the system, in order to maintain a copy of thecontent to present in a fixed (and always visible) location on the userinterface.

Consider now FIG. 3, in which the scrollbar 208 has been draggedupwards, as depicted. In this depicted embodiment of the presentinvention, the unpinned area 202 moves downward (in response to thescrollbar 208 moving upward). However, despite the movement of thescrollbar 208, the pinned area 204 remains in the same place on the userinterface 200. Furthermore, the pinned area 204 is z-indexed above theunpinned area 202 (i.e., the pinned area 204 remains “on top of” theunpinned area 202), such that the content of the pinned area 204 isnever obscured. Also, the pinned area 204 remains “active”, such thatcontent within the pinned area 204 can be modified by the user,hyperlinks to webpages remain active, etc. That is, “focus” remains onthe pinned area 204.

In another embodiment, the pinned area moves in response to scrollbarmovement while the unpinned area remains fixed. For example, considerFIG. 4, in which the scrollbar 208 has been moved downward by the user.This resulted in the unpinned area 202 remaining in its originalposition on the user interface 200, but the pinned area 204 now movesupward, as depicted. Nonetheless, as in FIG. 3, the pinned area 204 isz-indexed above the unpinned area 202, and “focus” remains on the pinnedarea 204.

Note further that all of the information (“Line A-Line E”) in the pinnedarea remains visible, whether the pinned area 204 is fixed in place(FIG. 3) or moves (FIG. 4) in response to scrollbar movement.

In FIG. 2, the size, shape, and location of the pinned area 204 isfreeform and unrestricted. That is, the user does not need to select apane, panel, cell, etc. to be pinned (e.g., “frozen”) into place, butrather has the freedom of using the cursor 206 or some other pointinginput device to define what area/content is to be pinned (and thus havethe properties of a pinned area described in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4).

In one embodiment of the present invention, the pinned area is visuallycoded, as shown in FIG. 5. Assume that the user interface 200 isdisplaying an initial unpinned area 502, which includes areas that willbe “pinned” in response to an input from a user (as described above). Inthis embodiment, however, assume that the user has selected the shape ofa star (either from a menu of available shapes or else drawn freehand bythe user) to identify which part of the original unpinned area 502 is tobe pinned as pinned area 504 (having the same properties of pinned area204 in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4). The user can also select the shape of a cloudto define pinned area 505. The star shapes and cloud shapes can visuallyidentify various properties of the pinned areas.

For example, the star shape may indicate that the pinned area 504contains information about astronomy, while the cloud shape may indicatethat pinned area 505 contains information about meteorology. Thus, thevisual coding (either as a particular shape such as a star, cloud, etc.,or as a particular color, texture, etc.) may indicate the content of thepinned area.

Alternatively, the star shape may indicate that the pinned area 504 wasdefined/selected first, while the cloud shape may indicate that pinnedarea 505 was selected second (later). Thus, the visual coding (shape,color, shading, etc.) may indicate the order in which the user selecteddifferent pinned areas.

While the user interface 200 shown in FIG. 2-FIG. 5 has been illustratedas displaying generic text/graphic information, FIG. 6 illustrates auser interface 600 that displays a spreadsheet 602. The initialspreadsheet 602 includes initially unpinned areas. However, by the userdefining a pinned area 604 using the freeform process described above, apinned area 604 (having the same properties as pinned area 204 above) iscreated. Note that pinned area 604 is not restricted to any particularcell or group of cells. In fact, as shown in the example of FIG. 6, thepinned area 604 may traverse across rows and/or columns, but onlyportions thereof. For example, a particular cell may have a string ofdata, but only part of that data is pinned by the pinned area 604. Thisallows greater flexibility in determining what to “freeze” in aspreadsheet. That is, there is no requirement to freeze an entire cellusing the present invention.

Another embodiment in which the present invention is useful and may beimplemented is in an integrated development environment (IDE). Forexample, FIG. 7 depicts a user interface 700 that displays an IDE 701,which has a source code editor pane 703 in which a user can type code,and debugger pane 705 that shows errors that occur when the codeexecutes. In one embodiment, a user has defined a pinned area 704 withinthe source code editor pane 703. When the scrollbar 208 is moved, codewithin the pinned area 704 remains at a fixed location defined by pinnedarea 704, while other code within the source code editor pane 703 and/orerror messages within the debugger pane 705 scroll in response to themovement of the scrollbar 208. This allows the user to keep certain codein view within the pinned area 704, while still being able to scrollthrough other code (from the source code editor pane 703) and/or errormessages (from the debugger pane 705).

With reference now to FIG. 8, a high level flow chart of one or moreexemplary steps performed by one or more processors to pin and managepinned areas on a user interface is presented. After initiator block802, one or more processors receive a first pinning signal from a user(block 804). This first pinning signal defines a first pinned area(e.g., pinned area 204 in FIG. 2) on a user interface. The first pinnedarea is an unrestricted freeform area that is defined by the user. Thatis, the user can select any region on the user interface as the pinnedarea, without regard to cell boundaries in a spreadsheet, differentformats (e.g., text versus graphics) used in the pinned area, etc.

As described in block 806, one or more processors then receive ascrolling input. As described herein, this scrolling input causes anunpinned area on the user interface to move (i.e., change locationsand/or cause content to shift) on the user interface. Furthermore, thescrolling causes the first pinned area to be z-indexed above theunpinned area that has moved, if not already so. This ensures that thepinned area remains visible on the user interface. Furthermore, and asdescribed herein, the scrolling causes (allows) the first pinned area toremain in a fixed (original) position on the user interface.

The flow-chart ends at terminator block 808.

As described herein and in one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, the first pinned area remains active while the unpinned areais being moved by the scrolling input. That is, content within thepinned area can be modified, hyperlinks remain enabled, etc.

As described herein and in one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, one or more processors receive a second pinning signal. Thissecond pinning signal is received after the first pinning signal, anddefines a second pinned area on the user interface, as described aboveand depicted in FIG. 5. As with the first pinned area, the second pinnedarea is an unrestricted freeform area that is created by the user. Oneor more processors visually encode the second pinned area (e.g., with apreselected shape, color, etc.) to identify the second pinned area ashaving been pinned after the first pinned area.

As described herein and in one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, the pinned area is visually coded by a graphically coded userinput to identify a particular type of content in the pinned area, asdescribed above and depicted in FIG. 5.

As described herein and in one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, the user interface presents a spreadsheet (see FIG. 6). Thepinned area is not restricted to the boundaries of a cell or group ofcells, but rather may extend across only partial portions of at leasttwo columns/rows in the spreadsheet.

As described herein and in one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, the user interface presents an integrated developmentenvironment (IDE), wherein the IDE comprises a source code editor paneand a debugging pane (see FIG. 7). The pinned area captures a portion ofthe source code editor pane, such that other code within the source codeeditor pane and/or error messages in the debugging pane can be scrolledwhile code within the pinned area remains fixed in place on the userinterface.

While using applications, the user may wish to retain part(s) of thepage on screen and scroll to see other parts. For example, viewing anembedded video with the sound off and scrolling part of the page to reada provided transcript that is unable to entirely fit with the initialviewable display space. The present invention as described hereinprovides this ability to the user.

The present invention provide new and useful advantages over the priorart.

For example, in the prior art a user could apply focus to one window ona browser while not giving focus to another window. This results in the“unfocused” window being frozen in place. However, this results in theunfocused window often being covered by the window in focus, which thepresent invention avoids. Furthermore, the present invention negates theneed to use multiple windows to view different content, by providing assystem in which the user can view multiple parts of the same window thatwould otherwise not be displayed together.

Spreadsheet software allows users to “freeze” certain rows/columns, suchthat other rows/columns can be scrolled while the frozen row/columnremains fixed in place. However, such systems do not allow portions ofcells within a row/column to be frozen, nor do they allow non-contiguouscells to be frozen. The present invention, however, does provide thesecapabilities by allowing multiple areas to be pinned simultaneously.

Thus, the present invention, as described herein, provides a user withthe ability to select a custom area on a display so that it stays inplace and is still “live” while the user navigates in such a way thatthe pinned area does not move and is not hidden from view. The presentinvention provides a user with a mechanism that allows the user toselect an area of displayed content to be pinned in place, thus allowingthe user to continue to navigate around the page while keeping thechosen area in place.

As described herein, the area selected to be pinned can be free-form (asopposed to rectangular or some other restricted size/shape), and theselection can be made up of non-contiguous areas (using multiple pinningsignals).

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of various embodiments of the present invention has beenpresented for purposes of illustration and description, but is notintended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the formdisclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spiritof the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order tobest explain the principles of the invention and the practicalapplication, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art tounderstand the invention for various embodiments with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Note further that any methods described in the present disclosure may beimplemented through the use of a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware DescriptionLanguage) program and a VHDL chip. VHDL is an exemplary design-entrylanguage for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), and other similar electronicdevices. Thus, any software-implemented method described herein may beemulated by a hardware-based VHDL program, which is then applied to aVHDL chip, such as a FPGA.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

Having thus described embodiments of the invention of the presentapplication in detail and by reference to illustrative embodimentsthereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations arepossible without departing from the scope of the invention defined inthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer program product for pinning an area ona user interface, the computer program product comprising a computerreadable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, whereinthe computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se,and wherein the program code is readable and executable by a processorto perform a method comprising: receiving a first pinning signal from auser, wherein the first pinning signal defines a first pinned area on auser interface, and wherein the first pinned area is an unrestrictedfreeform area that is defined by the user; receiving a second pinningsignal from the user, wherein the second pinning signal defines a secondpinned area on the user interface, wherein the second pinned area is anunrestricted freeform area that is defined by the user, and wherein thefirst pinned area and the second pinned area are visually coded by agraphically coded user input that defines a particular shape thatindicates an order in which the user defined the first pinned area andthe second pinned area; and receiving a scrolling input, wherein thescrolling input causes an unpinned area on the user interface to move onthe user interface, wherein the scrolling causes the first pinned areaand the second pinned area to be z-indexed above the unpinned area thathas moved, and wherein the scrolling causes the first pinned area andthe second pinned area to remain in a fixed position on the userinterface.
 2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the firstpinned area remains active while the unpinned area is being moved by thescrolling input.
 3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein thefirst pinned area and the second pinned area do not overlap.
 4. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein the first pinned area isvisually coded by a graphically coded user input to identify aparticular type of subject matter described by content in the firstpinned area, and wherein the graphically coded user input defines aparticular shape that suggests the subject matter described by thecontent in the first pinned area.
 5. The computer program product ofclaim 1, wherein the user interface presents a spreadsheet, wherein thefirst pinned area extends across only partial portions of differentcells from at least two columns in the spreadsheet, wherein thedifferent cells contain different strings of data, and wherein only aportion of the different strings of data are pinned by the first pinnedarea that extended across only partial portions of the different cells.6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the user interfacepresents a spreadsheet, wherein the first pinned area extends acrossonly partial portions of different cells from at least two rows in thespreadsheet, wherein the different cells contain different strings ofdata, and wherein only a portion of the different strings of data arepinned by the first pinned area that extended across only partialportions of the different cells.
 7. The computer program product ofclaim 1, wherein the user interface presents an integrated developmentenvironment (IDE), wherein the IDE comprises a source code editor paneand a debugging pane, wherein the first pinned area captures a portionof the source code editor pane such that code within a pinned portion ofthe source code editor pane remains fixed in response to movement of ascrollbar, and wherein errors displayed within the debugging pane movein response to the movement of the scrollbar.
 8. A computer systemcomprising: a central processing unit (CPU), a computer readable memory,and a computer readable storage medium; first program instructions toreceive a first pinning signal from a user, wherein the first pinningsignal defines a first pinned area on a user interface, and wherein thefirst pinned area is a non-rectangular unrestricted freeform area thatis defined by the user; and second program instructions to receive ascrolling input, wherein the scrolling input causes an unpinned area onthe user interface to move on the user interface, wherein the scrollingcauses the first pinned area to be z-indexed above the unpinned areathat has moved, wherein the scrolling causes the first pinned area toremain in a fixed position on the user interface, wherein the userinterface presents a spreadsheet, wherein the first pinned area extendsacross only partial portions of different cells from at least twocolumns in the spreadsheet, wherein the different cells containdifferent strings of data, and wherein only a portion of the differentstrings of data are pinned by the first pinned area that extended acrossonly partial portions of the different cells; and wherein the first andsecond program instructions are stored on the computer readable storagemedium for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.
 9. Thecomputer system of claim 8, wherein the first pinned area remains activewhile the unpinned area is being moved by the scrolling input.
 10. Thecomputer system of claim 8, further comprising: third programinstructions to receive a second pinning signal, wherein the secondpinning signal is received after the first pinning signal, wherein thesecond pinning signal defines a second pinned area on the userinterface, wherein the first pinned area and the second pinned area donot overlap, and wherein the second pinned area is an unrestrictedfreeform area that is created by the user; and fourth programinstructions to visually encode the second pinned area to identify thesecond pinned area as having been pinned after the first pinned area;and wherein the third and fourth program instructions are stored on thecomputer readable storage medium for execution by the CPU via thecomputer readable memory.
 11. The computer system of claim 8, whereinthe first pinned area is visually coded by a graphically coded userinput to identify a particular type of subject matter described bycontent in the first pinned area, and wherein the graphically coded userinput defines a particular shape that suggests the subject matterdescribed by the content in the first pinned area.
 12. The computersystem of claim 8, wherein the user interface presents a spreadsheet,wherein the first pinned area extends across only partial portions ofdifferent cells from at least two columns in the spreadsheet, whereinthe different cells contain different strings of data, and wherein onlya portion of the different strings of data are pinned by the firstpinned area that extended across only partial portions of the differentcells.
 13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the user interfacepresents an integrated development environment (IDE), wherein the IDEcomprises a source code editor pane and a debugging pane, wherein thefirst pinned area captures a portion of the source code editor pane suchthat code within a pinned portion of the source code editor pane remainsfixed in response to movement of a scrollbar, and wherein errorsdisplayed within the debugging pane move in response to the movement ofthe scrollbar.
 14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein thefirst pinned area and the second pinned area are indexed to a samez-index above the unpinned area.
 15. The computer program product ofclaim 1, wherein the first pinned area is visually coded as a star inorder to indicate that the content in the pinned area is related toastronomy.
 16. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein thefirst pinned area is visually coded as a cloud in order to indicate thatthe content in the pinned area is related to meteorology.
 17. A computerprogram product for pinning an area on a user interface, the computerprogram product comprising a computer readable storage medium havingprogram code embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storagemedium is not a transitory signal per se, and wherein the program codeis readable and executable by a processor to perform a methodcomprising: receiving a pinning signal from a user, wherein the pinningsignal defines a pinned area on a user interface, and wherein the pinnedarea is a non-rectangular unrestricted freeform area that is defined bythe user; and receiving a scrolling input, wherein the scrolling inputcauses an unpinned area on the user interface to move on the userinterface, wherein the scrolling causes the pinned area to be z-indexedabove the unpinned area that has moved, wherein the scrolling causes thepinned area to remain in a fixed position on the user interface, whereinthe user interface presents a spreadsheet, wherein the pinned areaextends across only partial portions of different cells from at leasttwo rows in the spreadsheet, wherein the different cells containdifferent strings of data, and wherein only a portion of the differentstrings of data are pinned by the pinned area that extended across onlypartial portions of the different cells.